I hesitated to walk on this trail for fear that the memories would be bad. To somewhat counter this, I parked at Grey Whale Cove and walked the opposite direction cutting off for Old Pedro Mountain Road and Montara Mountain. This meant that I overlapped our last hike for a good piece but didn't duplicate it.
While I must confess to some tears, most of my memories were joyful. Marilyn really liked to be outdoors and particularly enjoyed the coast. The McNee Ranch trail up the hill from Highway 1 between Grey Whale Cove and Montara Beach was the perfect trail. After a short and somewhat steep rise it leveled out with spectacular views of the ocean and a couple beaches. This hike and that moment recaptured several of the joys we had in our life together. It's poor ending, with the wrong prescription compression garment and poor advice that she could go walking in the compression garment leading to what she described as a lymph explosion, a burning sensation in her upper thigh/groin, was also the end of her alternative Gerson Therapy. If any other therapy, including the Protocel we tried too late, could have worked, we didn't learn of it soon enough for it to work.
My retracing some of those steps brought more memories of our hikes and fun than memories of the consequences of that hike. She was a joy to be with and that trail was her kind of trail. It even had and has a couple of benches.
Today I found some picnic tables that neither of us knew about. It could very easily have been her favorite spot. I don't think she would have ever gone on the ten-mile round trip hike to the top of Montara Mountain, even before her first cancer.
Slowly I am hiking all the approaches to Montara Mountain. There is a trail from Grey Whale Cove that goes a little more directly up the ridge. I may have to try that one to see if it is shorter. Today's hiking took just over three hours and almost 20,000 steps. Even going up hill I tried to keep my step length its full calibrated length. I was relieved that the pedometer did count them because I know that they were slower.
I didn't refill my camelback and as a result ran out of water at the top. Thank goodness coming down is easier, when I don't slip too much or fall at all.
Even with the exercise, today has been a reduced diet day. I was going to fast with just fiber drinks to give a matrix for my supplements and vitamins to be digested properly but ended up having dinner. The dinner would have been much less caloric if I hadn't tacked on the two slices of homemade whole wheat sourdough bread but it all was good.
I think I'm finally getting on top of the poison oak infestation I've been suffering. It has taken Benadryl pill to do so but none of my patches itched on the hike I took today. Unfortunately, they still are red, which leaves me taking another pill yet tonight. I'd like to think that the "drowsy" formula would help me sleep but the drying of the anti-histamine counters it.
Showing posts with label Old Pedro Mountain road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Old Pedro Mountain road. Show all posts
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Week, so far, in Review
I'll start out with a rather tasty vegetable stew I just made for my evening meal. Perhaps it isn't so noteworthy as it is fresh on my mind. I do thing the wine I put into it, as well as the expired vegetable broth, is the primary source of its flavor. Since I just got a bunch of fresh garlic powder to make the various marinades for chicken jerky for my (youngest) daughter and her husband to taste, I also include some of that. Oh, and fresh ground black pepper. Other than the flavoring, it's just potatoes, carrots, and a leek. I will eat something else but I haven't figured out what just yet. I haven't even calculated the calories per serving for my calorie counting spreadsheet. This will go a long way to figuring out what else I will eat. I do need to eat my legumes yet for the day.
I would have eaten some for lunch but I had lunch on the road today, the Old Pedro Mountain Road. (I think I wrote about it in an earlier posting.) Anyway, it isn't nicknamed the "Planet of the Apes Road" for nothing. With all of its deterioration, it is only suitable for walking. And walk I did. I started out intending only to walk to where I had prior to my receiving "that darn pedometer," to see how far I had walked on that earlier hike, 5.5 miles round trip, but the day was so nice, I decided to walk further and hike on some new to me trail/road. On the Montara side of the mountain, the road is definitely more degraded. At one spot the road itself has completely slipped away and a rather crude trail was hacked out of the hill above where the road would have been. Then there was the section that was a new service road, only because I missed the little trail that didn't look like an old road at all off to the right. (I caught it on my return just to say I walked it.) Since there wasn't a convenient bench or rock or even a semi-dry log, that allowed me to sit, I ate my apple, Clif Bar, and whole wheat English muffin while walking. I was originally going to walk the whole road to its connection with Highway 1, but instead walked a short side trail to the last trail that Marilyn and I hiked and turned around. All in all, I walked 11 miles in just over three hours and 20,175 aerobic steps.
While the scenery was beautiful, including the clearest I've ever seen the Farallon Islands, I didn't take my camera. If I had, I may not have gotten nearly so much aerobic walking in.
Last Sunday night I went to an Academy Awards party, well viewing party. While I could see the TV, I really didn't do that much viewing. It was really just an opportunity to get together with some of my Fremont friends, many of whom I hadn't seen for over a year, some longer. I spent the entire evening talking with the husbands of the real avid viewers, the husband of the hostess of the party in particular. There were other conversations that came and went depending on the level of interest in the award being given out. I was asked for the recipe of the dessert I brought, the Basic Chocolate Cupcake from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook. I also took a Peanut Butter Buttercream icing from the same cookbook on the side. I didn't want to cause anyone who might have a peanut allergy grief. (Really it was just because I was running late and didn't want to take the time.) Most people, allergy or not, ate them plain. I was able to leave all that I took there. I needed to get back on my life diet and didn't want the temptation of very rich, even if vegan, food around.
As far as the chicken jerky I'm making, I got three recipes off of the Internet and am making up eight pounds of chicken breasts spread across each of them. My PCT walking daughter and son-in-law are to do a taste test to see which of the three they want to carry with them on the trail. I plan on making turkey jerky for the actual hike but Costco didn't have any boneless, skinless turkey breasts. This is the first time I've used chicken. Of course, it's the first time I've made jerky in a long time, at least ten years. Their tasting might be a little off from more than just the chicken.
I guess, at least from what I've written, not much of significance happened. Oh well, it seemed more significant when I started.
I would have eaten some for lunch but I had lunch on the road today, the Old Pedro Mountain Road. (I think I wrote about it in an earlier posting.) Anyway, it isn't nicknamed the "Planet of the Apes Road" for nothing. With all of its deterioration, it is only suitable for walking. And walk I did. I started out intending only to walk to where I had prior to my receiving "that darn pedometer," to see how far I had walked on that earlier hike, 5.5 miles round trip, but the day was so nice, I decided to walk further and hike on some new to me trail/road. On the Montara side of the mountain, the road is definitely more degraded. At one spot the road itself has completely slipped away and a rather crude trail was hacked out of the hill above where the road would have been. Then there was the section that was a new service road, only because I missed the little trail that didn't look like an old road at all off to the right. (I caught it on my return just to say I walked it.) Since there wasn't a convenient bench or rock or even a semi-dry log, that allowed me to sit, I ate my apple, Clif Bar, and whole wheat English muffin while walking. I was originally going to walk the whole road to its connection with Highway 1, but instead walked a short side trail to the last trail that Marilyn and I hiked and turned around. All in all, I walked 11 miles in just over three hours and 20,175 aerobic steps.
While the scenery was beautiful, including the clearest I've ever seen the Farallon Islands, I didn't take my camera. If I had, I may not have gotten nearly so much aerobic walking in.
Last Sunday night I went to an Academy Awards party, well viewing party. While I could see the TV, I really didn't do that much viewing. It was really just an opportunity to get together with some of my Fremont friends, many of whom I hadn't seen for over a year, some longer. I spent the entire evening talking with the husbands of the real avid viewers, the husband of the hostess of the party in particular. There were other conversations that came and went depending on the level of interest in the award being given out. I was asked for the recipe of the dessert I brought, the Basic Chocolate Cupcake from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook. I also took a Peanut Butter Buttercream icing from the same cookbook on the side. I didn't want to cause anyone who might have a peanut allergy grief. (Really it was just because I was running late and didn't want to take the time.) Most people, allergy or not, ate them plain. I was able to leave all that I took there. I needed to get back on my life diet and didn't want the temptation of very rich, even if vegan, food around.
As far as the chicken jerky I'm making, I got three recipes off of the Internet and am making up eight pounds of chicken breasts spread across each of them. My PCT walking daughter and son-in-law are to do a taste test to see which of the three they want to carry with them on the trail. I plan on making turkey jerky for the actual hike but Costco didn't have any boneless, skinless turkey breasts. This is the first time I've used chicken. Of course, it's the first time I've made jerky in a long time, at least ten years. Their tasting might be a little off from more than just the chicken.
I guess, at least from what I've written, not much of significance happened. Oh well, it seemed more significant when I started.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
What a day to stop/start blogging!
I was thinking I would take a break in my blogging, at least more than the few hours I did take, but I have the bug. I was getting tired of my LAL blog primarily because it was too much backward facing. I'm not going to count the days and may not even make daily entries in this blog because its focus will be on doing things, going forward, living my third life.
While my "third life" may have started earlier, I don't have any specific date, so it is appropriate that this blog about my third life starts on the day that a president that I helped elect was inaugurated. I am optimistic about his presidency but was mildly disappointed with the delivery of his inauguration speech. It's almost as if he were constrained by his own realization that he was speaking for posterity. Fortunately, it reads much better. I was more inspired reading it than I was hearing him deliver it. I think his convention nomination acceptance speech was delivered better.
For two days now I have been diligent in my exercising, well three if you count the golf that made me sore the day before. Today I went for a walk in the hills around Pacifica. I'm going to do interesting things more often but I still have all the mundane maintenance things to do. I've decided I just won't write about them. This is why this blog may not be a daily thing.
Today my doing consisted of hiking a portion of the "Planet of the Apes" road. At least that is what a former boss of mine called it and I can see why. It is actually an abandoned paved road, Old Pedro Mountain Road between Pacifica and Montara, that is slowly being reclaimed by nature. It has a nice gentle but consistent rise to the ridge it crosses. Where it crosses the ridge, there are two paths to the left and one path to the right. One of the left paths is actually the trail to the top of Montara Mountain. I took the other left path, which was essentially a maintenance road to some electrical wires. Earlier on the hike, I had thought to myself that I'll keep walking until the next bench I pass after 1:00 PM. These creosote coated logs became my bench.
After eating lunch I took the trail to the right and came upon "Bill's Overlook" bench. In my haste I had missed the perfect lunch spot, with a view, and instead chose a non-flat surface which required wading though at least some poison oak. (Even if it wasn't, I'd get sympathetic itches just thinking that it was, and it really was.)
I chose to walk up still further to a point that my oldest daughter, her husband, and I had walked soon after we had moved to Pacifica. The trail down to the paved road was just as I remembered it. Since I originally hadn't planned on walking that trail I wore my tennis shoes for the hike. While I never slid or worse, fell, I didn't technically need my hiking boots but there were times that I wished I had worn them. They fit better and my toes feel less jammed on the steeper downhills than they do in my tennis shoes.
I didn't really see that much wild life and just when I was thinking that the only wild life I had seen were birds, although I saw a lot of fur as if the remnants of a meal for some non-bird carnivore, I saw something brown streak across the trail going up hill in front of me. It looked to be smaller than a bobcat and definitely wasn't hopping like a rabbit. Later I saw a kitten, which may or may not have been wild. It scampered off just like a wild thing.
I was waxing quite philosophical on my hike about how the works of man are temporary with this "Planet of the Apes" road as the embodiment of the metaphor. There were slips and other soil incursions from the upper side of the road and an accumulation of decaying leaves and other on the downhill side. Both supported encroaching growth. Then there were a couple sections where slips had even taken out part of the road.
I did see a lot of horse and dog scat. Those I was looking for to avoid. I didn't see, or if I did, didn't recognize any other animal droppings. While I didn't see any horses, I did see a couple of dog walkers, one of which was obviously doing it professionally. She had at least eight dogs, only three of which, the smallest three, were on leashes. A couple mountain bikers passed me and about three fellow hikers. Otherwise, it was quite a solitary experience.
Unfortunately, I didn't undertake this hike as well prepared as I would have liked. I had intended to start carrying a plastic grocery bag with me so I could pick up litter. I forgot to do so and left it all up there. This gives me reason to walk it again. I also forgot my mono-pod in the car. Thus my telephoto pictures may be blurry. You can see the whole album of my hike in my album on Kodak Gallery.
While my "third life" may have started earlier, I don't have any specific date, so it is appropriate that this blog about my third life starts on the day that a president that I helped elect was inaugurated. I am optimistic about his presidency but was mildly disappointed with the delivery of his inauguration speech. It's almost as if he were constrained by his own realization that he was speaking for posterity. Fortunately, it reads much better. I was more inspired reading it than I was hearing him deliver it. I think his convention nomination acceptance speech was delivered better.
For two days now I have been diligent in my exercising, well three if you count the golf that made me sore the day before. Today I went for a walk in the hills around Pacifica. I'm going to do interesting things more often but I still have all the mundane maintenance things to do. I've decided I just won't write about them. This is why this blog may not be a daily thing.
Today my doing consisted of hiking a portion of the "Planet of the Apes" road. At least that is what a former boss of mine called it and I can see why. It is actually an abandoned paved road, Old Pedro Mountain Road between Pacifica and Montara, that is slowly being reclaimed by nature. It has a nice gentle but consistent rise to the ridge it crosses. Where it crosses the ridge, there are two paths to the left and one path to the right. One of the left paths is actually the trail to the top of Montara Mountain. I took the other left path, which was essentially a maintenance road to some electrical wires. Earlier on the hike, I had thought to myself that I'll keep walking until the next bench I pass after 1:00 PM. These creosote coated logs became my bench.
After eating lunch I took the trail to the right and came upon "Bill's Overlook" bench. In my haste I had missed the perfect lunch spot, with a view, and instead chose a non-flat surface which required wading though at least some poison oak. (Even if it wasn't, I'd get sympathetic itches just thinking that it was, and it really was.)
I chose to walk up still further to a point that my oldest daughter, her husband, and I had walked soon after we had moved to Pacifica. The trail down to the paved road was just as I remembered it. Since I originally hadn't planned on walking that trail I wore my tennis shoes for the hike. While I never slid or worse, fell, I didn't technically need my hiking boots but there were times that I wished I had worn them. They fit better and my toes feel less jammed on the steeper downhills than they do in my tennis shoes.
I didn't really see that much wild life and just when I was thinking that the only wild life I had seen were birds, although I saw a lot of fur as if the remnants of a meal for some non-bird carnivore, I saw something brown streak across the trail going up hill in front of me. It looked to be smaller than a bobcat and definitely wasn't hopping like a rabbit. Later I saw a kitten, which may or may not have been wild. It scampered off just like a wild thing.
I was waxing quite philosophical on my hike about how the works of man are temporary with this "Planet of the Apes" road as the embodiment of the metaphor. There were slips and other soil incursions from the upper side of the road and an accumulation of decaying leaves and other on the downhill side. Both supported encroaching growth. Then there were a couple sections where slips had even taken out part of the road.
I did see a lot of horse and dog scat. Those I was looking for to avoid. I didn't see, or if I did, didn't recognize any other animal droppings. While I didn't see any horses, I did see a couple of dog walkers, one of which was obviously doing it professionally. She had at least eight dogs, only three of which, the smallest three, were on leashes. A couple mountain bikers passed me and about three fellow hikers. Otherwise, it was quite a solitary experience.
Unfortunately, I didn't undertake this hike as well prepared as I would have liked. I had intended to start carrying a plastic grocery bag with me so I could pick up litter. I forgot to do so and left it all up there. This gives me reason to walk it again. I also forgot my mono-pod in the car. Thus my telephoto pictures may be blurry. You can see the whole album of my hike in my album on Kodak Gallery.
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